Witbe launches OTT Robots 2.0

Witbe, the next generation Quality Monitoring company, is launching version 2.0 of its OTT Robots at IBC. They are designed to provide comprehensive Content Delivery Network (CDN) infrastructure monitoring to CDN Operators and Service Providers offering Multiscreen and OTT video services.

As the industry is rapidly making video content available to any screen over any network, Service Providers are increasingly relying on CDN operators to stream content using Adaptive Bitrate technologies (ABR). This introduces new challenges to measure and control the quality really delivered to end-users, and calls for a new generation of monitoring technologies.

Witbe’s OTT Robots are automated test appliances requesting content to the CDN as a customer would do when using any multiscreen application. They immediately identify manifest and chunk errors, detect loops in live streams, measure download speed, and highlight load balancing issues, for both on-net and off-net cache servers. They support Microsoft Smooth Streaming (MSS), Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and now, MPEG-DASH to provide comprehensive assessments of CDN performance and better identify inter domain responsibilities.

Witbe’s OTT Robots can be installed in a core network or within a CDN node. They can also be connected to any consumer broadband line, either fixed or mobile, to easily monitor third-party CDNs in a completely non-intrusive manner. Witbe’s OTT Robots are available in various form factors to suit any deployment constraints. At IBC2013, Witbe is introducing the new S200 hardware platform which brings the same feature set in a pocket-sized enclosure that also offers built-in Wi-Fi and 3G/4G radio interfaces to monitor CDN services from wireless networks.

“With the new version of these OTT Robots, Witbe offers a unique solution for real-time alarming, SLA enforcement and routing optimisation,” explains Jean-Michel Planche, Witbe’s President and co-founder. “As streaming technologies are evolving and delivery infrastructures are getting more complex, involving many third parties, Witbe’s OTT Robots are the key to proactively resolve issues, identify inter domain responsibilities and deliver the quality that service providers can charge for.”